Residue-specific information about the dynamics of antimicrobial peptides from¹H-¹⁵N and²H solid-state NMR spectroscopy

We present a new method to obtain information about the conformational dynamics of membrane-proteins using solid-state NMR experiments of oriented samples. By measuring the orientation-dependent ¹H-¹⁵N dipole-dipole coupling, ¹⁵N anisotropic chemical shift, and ²H quadrupole coupling parameters for a single residue, it is possible to obtain information about the local dynamics of each residue in the protein. This may be interpreted on an individual basis or through models extended to study conformational motion of membrane-protein segments. The method is demonstrated for the antimicrobial peptaibol alamethicin for which combined analysis of anisotropic interactions for the Aib₈ residue provides detailed information about helix-tilt angle, wobbling, and oscillatory rotation around the helix axis in the membrane bound state. This information is in very good agreement with coarse-grained MD simulations of the peptide in lipid bilayers.